The nosebleed is, of course, a visual shorthand/euphemism for sexual arousal. It is commonly interpreted that way for males and females, with little trickles of blood indicating mild arousal, and gushing fountains of blood indicating erection/extreme arousal in both sexes. It can also be interpreted as shorthand strictly for erections in males. In that case, when blood shoots from the nose explosively, and in ridiculous quantity, the implication would be an ejaculation.

This happens in virtually every anime with fanservice. It also occasionally appears these days in western media — especially Webcomics — which are open about their manga influences. The concept comes from a Japanese old wives' tale, and might be Truth in Televisionnote The nose (according to The Other Wiki) has erectile tissue that can become engorged during sexual arousal such as sexually induced sneezing which is far more common. under very rare circumstances.

Subverted and played for laughs in I"s, when Nami shows herself to Ichitaka in her latest, skimpy bikini and he doesn't get a nosebleed. Nami's pride is so hurt that she hooks her fingers up his nostrils and demands he get one, but he still doesn't.

Dragon Ball: Master Roshi's tendency to spew blood from the nose was actually a vital part of one battle. As Yamcha fought an opponent who was completely invisible, Krillin positioned Roshi just right at the side of the arena, then removed Bulma's top in front of him. The resulting blood spew coated the invisible man, allowing Yamcha to see him and beat him easily. Afterwards, Roshi first yelled angrily at Krillin over potentially having a heart attack before patting him on the head, saying "Good job". As this plot point was too sexual for the broadcast cut of the dub, they replaced it with some nonsense involving tomato soup.

Happens to Jun after his first combination in Genesis of Aquarion. Interpret that however the hell you want.

Shuichi from the Gravitation manga doesn't even need bare flesh: his aloof love interest promising to take him on a date if his band sells a million records or saying "Yeah" to his question if he loves him is enough to give him massive nosebleeds.

Most of Nube's male students in Hell Teacher Nube have high-pressure nosebleeds upon seeing their classmates (or any other woman, really) either nude or nearly there. This caused Minki some distress, as she first appeared to Katsuya and Hiroshi in a Stripperiffic outfit... without panties. The resulting fountain coated her in blood.

Rena Ryuugu in Higurashi: When They Cry Rei has a nosebleed after she imagines ripping off Keiichi's swimsuit and exposing his furry seal. Although she doesn't have another nosebleed after she actually sees it, blushing instead (just like the rest of the girls).

Keiichi has had a nosebleed in Hirukowashi-hen. Rena also has had more then one nosebleed in the series.

Rena is actually quite prone to nosebleeds. In the first arc of the visual novel, she has one as a somewhat disturbing reaction to Rika acting adorable, obviously Played for Laughs in this situation.

This happens to schoolgirl lesbian Mitsu from Honey Crush. She gets bonus points because she's a ghost and shouldn't even have blood in the first place.

Subverted in volume 9 of the manga I"s. At a trip to the beach Nami, in a very revealing outfit, asks protagonist Ichitaka if her swimsuit is sexy. His reaction isn't what she expected and she forces her fingers into his nose, demanding if he shouldn't at least get a nosebleed.

Ikki Tousen: Koukin suffers from one when he sees Hakufu naked in the Onsen episode.

Kanokon usually averts this. Despite Kouta having a girlfriend whose favorite activity is seducing him with her body and a would-be girlfriend who refuses to be outdone, he almost never nosebleeds. He passes out, runs away or gives in instead.

Lampshaded in episode 1 of Blue Exorcist as a Cut Himself Shaving: Reverend Fujimoto asks Rin why his nose is bleeding (he's been beaten up by the local bullies) to which he replies that he "ran into a really hot chick" outside.

Subverted in Karin: Karin does have a nosebleed whenever she is near her love interest Kenta Usui, but for very different reasons. She is a "Blood Maker" vampire, who produces more blood when she is around depressed people. The result is a literal High-Pressure Blood situation, wherein it actually explodes from her veins in a spectacular fashion if she can't bite someone and inject them with the excess blood, which, incidentally, cures their depression. To down the gore factor, the blood is portrayed as flowers exploding from her nose — at least, until it settles and we see the room soaked in blood.

Kakuka, a lesbian from Shin Koihime Musou gets quite an exaggerated version of this trope. The slightest perverted thought will create a spew of blood so large that she can actually use it as a weapon.

Love Hina: Keitaro is known by his female friends for his nosebleeds, the usual result of his seeing too much female skin, to the extent that when at one point it fails to happen, Naru becomes suspicious.

First chapter of Magical Pokaan: while casting a spell, Yuuma summons a magical wind that lifts her skirt... just enough for Dr. K-ko's aide to see her not wearing panties. His nosebleed is so hard he gets sent out flying across the room... multiple times, only to stop after hitting K-ko in the head and knocking her out!.

Negi himself is apparently too young to get nosebleeds. However, he's not above a Spit Take through the nose.

Chamo gets one when Haruna createsDark Nodoka. Oddly, it seems to be not a result of sexual arousal, but because of the Squee! that occurs when he thinks that Nodoka is getting serious with Negi.

Setsuna gets one when she sees Konoka in her bathing suit in the first OVA after they jump out of the plane.

Mai-HiME: When he spies Kuga Natsuki without panties (due to the efforts of a Panty Thief), a member of the Fuuka Academy kendo team actually passes out because of a veritable pair of blood fountains that erupt from his nose.

Earlier, during chapter 23, Minerva uses her dimensional powers to steal the girls' underwear, but she forgets to give them back. So when a sudden updraft lifts Haruko and Inaho's skirts, Takeru gets an eyeful and passes out with a smile on his face.

Asahi Kuromine, the male protagonist of My Monster Secret, is frequently subject to this — not in the least because he's friends with Shiho Shishido, a massiveTease and Shameless Fanservice Girl. He's actually been used as a measuring tool on occasions when the female cast wants to gauge their sexiness.

Later on a more serious (and yet still goofy) side of this is shown when Asahi's Grandkid from the Future Rin joins the cast. She explains that due to perverts taking over the world, "Grandpa Asahi" has had so many nosebleeds that he's basically become anemic and is permanently bedridden; thus, she came back in time to avert the Bad Future for Asahi's sake.

Naruto: Whenever Naruto uses his Sexy Jutsu in front of one of his (male) elders, they almost always have a massive nosebleed that knocks them off their feet. The blood, however, is completely edited out in the English TV broadcast version, although it is still intact on DVD.

Sanji from One Piece is often seen nose bleeding. One other, rather peculiar example of this trope in the series is when Brook nosebleeds, because he is just a skeleton (with an afro) that has no blood in his entire body.

Shortly before chapter 600, the crew was separated for about 2 years in the story for off-screen training arcs. Sanji spent the entire time on his own personal hell island, being trained by ugly transvestite men who were trying to seduce and convert him. Upon his return, Sanji was so susceptible to women that viewing them gave him nosebleeds that would rocket him back. In one chapter, just turning in the direction of one of his female crewmates, with his eyes closed, caused him to rocket nearly off their pirate ship. He had to be given a blood transfusion, and was shown visibly desiccated from blood loss.

There has been a total deconstruction of this trope in chapter 609. As you would expect, Sanji got a massive nosebleed upon arriving on Fishman Island and seeing the mermaids, to the point where it has become likely that he would quickly die without a transfusion. Good thing the Straw Hats found human donors.

The funniest one is Episode 128 in the anime, when Sanji suggests they all peep into the ladies' bath at Alubarna. Nami responds to this with "Happiness Punch"—she gives them exactly what they want by flashing them. They all get massive nosebleeds: Sanji, Luffy, Usopp, Chopper, Igaram, King Cobra, even a camel. (All but Zoro, who probably got lost.)

Funny enough, in Episode 341, Usopp saw Nami totally naked, and didn't get a nosebleed. But he did bow and thank her, though.

Then there was Episode 258, when Nami changed into fighting attire in front of Paulie, Lulu, Tilestone, and Zambai (due to lack of anywhere else to change). Paulie is a prude so avoids this by trying to Ignore The Fanservice, but the other three try to cover their nosebleeds while saying the peep show was Worth It. Paulie gets his turn later after Mozu and Kiwi get up close and personal to thank him for rescuing them; his nosebleed shoots like firehoses.

This happens in the Ouran High School Host Club manga to Tamaki when he sees Haruhi in a dress. Hikaru and Kaoru notice this and call him a pervert. However, because Tamaki doesn't actually realize that he's in love with Haruhi, he thinks he just hit his nose. Honey then tries to administer "first-aid" by hitting him with a karate chop, which just makes it worse.

A rather amusing example happened in Pastel; the protagonist's sexy stepmother went to their school to bring him his lunch. One thing led to another and she inexplicably decided to be the class's swimming coach. This led to so many of the boys getting nosebleeds that the pool itself was stained in blood! Soon after the protagonist realized that his stepmother still hadn't left the school as evidenced by all the blood stains in the school corridors!

In Plastic Little, Nichol suffers an explosive nose bleed while scuba diving in a tank full of predatory fish. The tank was above Tita's bathroom; three guesses what caused the nosebleed. This results in Tita catching him and Roger in the act and punishing them for it.

Mikan in Potemayo suffers several massive nosebleeds fantasizing about Sunao, often resulting in her being hauled off to the hospital.

Ryōga in Ranma ½. Even when he's P-chan the pig. This often confused Akane. Why should Marshmallow Hell arouse a pig?

Notably, he's immune to Ranma's naked female body (except on one or two occasions, though he normally may get a little flustered at most), because he considers his rival to be nothing if not 100% male. Any other naked woman will have this effect, regardless of his feelings for her.

There was also an episode centered around a child who could read minds. When he peeks into the thoughts of Happosai, he gets a brief nosebleed before going pale and fainting.

It's also a running gag involving Tsukune in the anime. It's utterly torrential when Yukari uses a voodoo doll to make him pull Kurumu's panties down right in front of Moka! Naturally, Kurumu has no complaints.

And let's not forget that Skirts and Ladders moment with Moka and Tsukune close to the end of the werewolf episode...

In the manga, Tsukune's first nosebleed is after his and Moka's Crash-Into Hello and subsequent landing. When Moka tries to wipe it off, the scent of blood gets to her and... Kapuchuu...

In the Rumic World short story "Excuse me for being a dog!" the protagonist (and his father) changes into a dog whenever he bleeds. Unfortunately for him, he's a boxer, and his nose is his weak spot. His father tries to train him not to bleed (or punishes him) by showing him centerfolds from nudie magazines.

This happens to Luke in The Sacred Blacksmith when Cecily's armor cracks and falls off, exposing her naked breasts.

In the Sailor Moon anime, Minako has a nosebleed after imagining taking a bath with one of the members of the band "The Three Lights".

In Codename: Sailor V she has a explosive nosebleed (and faints) after being kissed on the lips by a bishounen villain she has the hots for. Also in the Sailor V manga, regular male nosebleeds are seen several times.

In one of the Sailor Moon manga side-stories, several characters (including Mamoru) have these induced by two half-dressed female elementary school students.

Kaname in S.S. Astro anytime she sees Izumi in the way she thinks is very cute.

In one episode of the Tales of Eternia anime, Keele turns bright red and falls over with blood streaming from his nose at the sight of Minima clad in only a towel.

Tenchi in the Hot Springs Episode of Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki. It's worth noting that while the Cartoon Network version of this episode did paint bikinis over all the female characters in order to make the episode kid-friendly, Tenchi's nosebleeds were left intact, perhaps because them being a symbol of sexual arousal was less common knowledge in 2000.

Tasuke Yasuda (and his equally perverted little brother) gets these all the time in Cheeky Angel, although the blood is for some reason pink, as are occasional full body blushes.

Played with in A Certain Magical Index. Touma suffers a normal nosebleed in the middle of the night, and while stumbling around for a tissue accidentally wakes up the half-dressed Index sleeping nearby. Quickly realizing that this seems somewhat incriminating, Touma hastily points out that the whole nosebleed thing is an old wives' tale and that he wasn't actually ogling her. Then he gets beat up for not being attracted to her.

Happens to Morinaga in The Tyrant Falls in Love when he moves in temporarily with Tatsumi who often walks around bare chested and thus causes Morinaga to nosebleed.

Sometimes happens in Urusei Yatsura when Ataru and some of the othe male students have perverted thoughts.

Raiel from Violinist of Hameln suffers from a variation of this. Instead of being triggered by anything remotely lewd, he suffers catastrophic nasal bloodloss just from standing too close to a female. Apparently, he's just that sensitive. Once as a child, a young girl told him she liked him. After being drenched in the resulting high-pressure spray, she suffered a mental breakdown and never smiled again.

Sunako from The Wallflower has such an aversion to anything she considers bright or beautiful that seeing anyone male or female she considers to be a "Bright Creature" causes her to spout torrents of blood out of her nose. The male cast members also inflict nosebleeds on almost every girl they meet.

Happens to Satou once in Welcome to the N.H.K.. Interestingly enough, despite being linked to arousal, it's a regular, realistic nosebleed instead of an explosive fountain of blood.

Hayate the Combat Butler tells you quite clearly how much of a Chaste Hero Hayate is when he sees Izu-nyan 'attacking'. Hinagiku and he don't have this reaction, while still showing other reactions associated with it.

Lampshaded in chapter 1 of Ane Doki when 17-year-old girl Natsuki flirts with 13-year-old boy Kouta. She's initially worried at the sight of him bleeding, but then says, "Oh, that's right; guys your age get nosebleeds really easily." Thus reassured, she returns her attention to her cooking.

Becomes a running gag in the manga Kanojo Wa Kannou Shousetsuka. Shiina Keisuke, the main character, becomes the editor of an S&M author whose work he really admires. As part of his job is to hear out new plotlines (and Kuroki Chihiro, the author, does "hands-on" research), he is constantly affected. However, this is quickly Lampshaded when Chihiro's maid begins to follow him around with a box of tissues, or when Chihiro refuses to start work until Keisuke blocks his nose somehow.

Military crazed policeman Volvo Saigo in Kochikame is very unaccustomed with women which he always gets nosebleeds whenever he gets physically or mentally contacted with the protagonist women. Ryotsu also gets occasional cases.

Lampshaded and subverted in Samurai Harem: Asu no Yoichi. Ibuki accuses Yoichi of having a nosebleed for thinking perverse thoughts (a frequent occurrence, thanks to Yoichi being an Accidental Pervert). Yoichi counters by saying it's because he had one because she had just hit him in the face multiple times.

In one episode of Durarara!!, the slimeball thug Horoda gets a realistic looking nosebleed after looking at the rather large-breasted Anri. This leads to a somewhat amusing scene when Shizuo arrives. Horoda upon seeing Shizuo fearfully sucks the blood back up his nose. When Shizuo notices Horoda and other thugs surrounding Anri, the blood runs back out of his nose as if the sight of Shizuo gave him a nosebleed. Shizuo promptly flies into one of his trademark unstoppable rages.

In K-On!, Mio tripped on a cord, and the way she got up gave the audience a Panty Shot. The entire performance was saved on DVD, and when 1st-year Azusa (who didn't know what had happened) expressed a desire to see it, Yamanaka-sensei had Ritsu and Yui restrain Mio so Azusa could watch. Cue the small streams of blood at the aforementioned point of the recording.

In Mai-Otome Zwei, Kazuya gets a nosebleed after Anh Lu rips off the tops of the bathing suits of several of the other Otome, including her own. In response, Akane slaps him and calls him a pervert.

At the start of Nagasarete Airantou, Ikuto could easily be knocked weak or unconscious by one of his frequent geyser nosebleeds. Later on, he toughens up and manages to stay active despite his nosebleeds. It's also an example of a functional nosebleed, as opposed to just shorthand for arousal; other characters actively comment on it like it were the weather and its spray conveniently blinded another character once.

Sanae from Squid Girl gets these all the time. Sometimes it's from just being a pervert at the thought of just being around Squid Girl. Most of the time though, it's brought on when Squid Girl knocks her into the sand for trying to get too close. Either way, Sanae is in bliss when it happens.

And get this; during Chapter 142, (or, in the anime, Season 2 Episode 5.3) Squid Girl tells Takeru that walls are quiet, but if a object is thrown, that object will bounce off the wall. She even demonstrates by throwing a ball at the wall...only for it to hit Squid Girl in the face, causing her to suffer a nosebleed, only instead of blood, it's just ink.

Happens to Miyako Shizutani from the short manga Oboretai, as she watches her co-worker Takamura take nude pictures of some cute models and tells them to relax. She imagines that he's talking to her and then starts nosebleeding as a sign of how much this Defrosting Ice Queen is suddenly starting to get turned on by him...

"You can't find that sort of cheesy reaction even in Shounen manga these days."

In the ''Lupin III" movie "The Pursuit Of Harimao's Treasure" Lupin and the gang have to get past some soldiers who are checking their wagon for smuggled goods. Lupin shows the investigating soldier his pornography collection, upon which the soldier promptly faints and is propelled out of the wagon with a spurt of blood from his nose.

This happens to both Tsukimi and Shuu in Princess Jellyfish. Tsukimi after she realizes Shuu hugged her and Shuu after he sees Tsukimi trying to get out of her kimono.

Exaggerated in Castle Town Dandelion. At the end of The Princess' Skirt skit in Chapter 12/ episode 4A, this happened to all the 10th grade boys and Karen after Akane innocently flashed in front of all of them.

Saya from Onidere takes this Up to Eleven. In one scene she ends up filling an entire classroom with blood, nearly drowning two of her friends, when she mistakenly believes that her boyfriend gave her an enema.

Fan Works

In the Ben 10Fan FictionHero High, Ben gets hit in the face to which the girl he has a crush on comes to check if he is ok. His nose starts to bleed from the injury and rushes inside the RV when the girl questions this reaction. At this point Gwen alludes to another reason his nose is bleeding.

"Once upon a time, you sneaking into my room at night in just a shirt and underwear would have made me pass out from either terror or lustful nosebleeds."

In Thousand Shinji, Shinji and Touji's noses bled several times as Rei explained how Asuka made sure that she took a shower and washed her body properly.

“And after I held you down and soaped you up this morning too!” Asuka cried out before realizing that perhaps that was too much information. Shinji managed to clamp down on his nose in time but Toji suffered an explosive nosebleed and promptly collapsed.

Film

In a rare live action example, Heishiro, the protagonist of the film Samurai Fiction (itself an Affectionate Parody of the chanbara genre), reacts to the sight of his love interest with a nosebleed. Twice.

K-20: Legend of the Mask: Heikichi and Genji walk in on Yoko while she is bathing and naturally she decides to stand up to scold them while stark naked. Kikuko chastises them both for getting nose bleeds at their age.

In the Korean film Lost and Found (Sweet Lies), Dong-Sik tries to convince the amnesiac Ji-Ho (who actually is faking amnesia) that he is her boyfriend, making up a bunch of fake dates they went on and claiming to have once gotten a nosebleed around her.

Realistically done in the live-action version of Princess Jellyfish when Shuu first sees Tsukimi (because he was hit twice on the nose by a door), but it's obviously done to reference the anime trope.

Literature

Surprisingly, mentioned in Meir Shalev's Esau; the narrator says that a book about seduction "had photos that caused me to urgently need a blood transfusion".

Live Action TV

In Frasier, Niles gets nosebleeds around Daphne quite frequently (and also whenever he tells a lie).

In an episode of How I Met Your Mother, Barney agrees to teach a socially inept male co-worker how to hit on women. Barney discovers, to his dismay, that the guy in question can't even talk to attractive women without suffering a nosebleed (it occurs every time he gets an erection). Learning that his co-worker was a former police officer, Barney decides to try passing it off as an injury acquired in the line of duty — and somehow, this actually works.

An episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia began with Frank running into the bar, falling on his face, and getting a massive nosebleed. He proceeds to tell the gang that he's in trouble because his business partner in a beauty pagent was arrested for coming on to one of the contestants. It turns out, this is a pagent for children, and Franks spends the majority of the episode trying to convince everyone that he is not a pervert. However, with this trope in mind, his constant nosebleeds take on a whole new meaning.

In the T-ara music video for the Korean cover of Little Apple, the original artists Chopstick Brothers bleed from their noses while seeing the T-ara members dancing.

Video Games

Brooklyn Luckfield from Super Robot Wars is easily flustered, thus almost always in danger of getting hit with this trope. Not to mention his teammate is one flamboyant, cheery Ms. Fanservice who wouldn't mind teasing him on his nosebleed tendencies.

Dead Rising: If Frank takes a picture that the game labels as "erotica" he will have a nosebleed for a few minutes afterwards.

Miyabi Hanakouji of Persona 2: Innocent Sin got her nickname, Hanaji, when she had a nosebleed in the girls' locker room. It seemed to be just a wrong-place-wrong-time scenario. Though she did have the hots for a certain visual kei rocker boy (girlyman) for a while.

In Metal Gear Ac!d, there are bonus 'model cards' with pictures of sexy Japanese women on them. If Teliko uses one of these cards, they have no effect. If Snake uses one of these cards, he gains the BLEEDING status for ten turns.

This trope is the only possible explanation for the golden hip special having a bloodshed rating in the WWE Day Of Reckoning games.

In both Mugen Souls games, Ryuto ends up doing this from time to time when he sees something perverted or when his thoughts are perverted, most notabley when he sees Sandy when she's forced into wearing a bikini by Soul Skyheart (whose nose is also bleeding), and in Z, when he's thinking about Chou-Chou's description of her condition in Syrma's coffin being in slimy and gooey stuff as she's being shrunk down to a chibi form and losing her powers. Naturally, Nao and Syrma are disgusted.

Ryuto: "B-B-B-BIKINI! MY HOLY COD!!!"

Webcomics

Referenced in The Lounge for one of their strip titles. But you could pretty easily imagine it happening in this one.

Otter Soldiers: This trope is mentioned and refuted in the FYI section, where it is subverted: one of the main characters suffers from frequent nosebleeds for perfectly genuine reasons.

Ménage à 3 uses this trope alot, almost always inflicting the effect on Gary. Well, such problems aren't surprising when you're a geeky straight guy (and a hopeless manga fan, too) with two casually sexy roommates. Oddly enough, one of the comic's most spectacular nosebleed was in a guest strip.

In a similar vein, Ron from the comic strip Electronic Tigers will have his explode under these conditions (although it takes more than most other examples on this page).

Happens in Blip to Bishop on a few occasions. Some people are aware of the implications, some aren't; at one point, K accidentally shows off her cleavage, then thinks that Bishop's resulting nosebleed was because she hit him too hard. With a pillow.

In Slimy Thief one of Azamat's costumers, a samurai, gets a bad nosebleed when he sees Aisha's breasts get bigger. Aisha and Azamat are freaked out by it but he explains that his people angred a goddess who curse them to get nosebleed when they become aroused.

The Beavis And Butthead episode "Nosebleed". In it, Beavis gets it after getting hit by Butthead a bit too much. Butthead tries to stop it, only for more blood to come out. Eventually, he asks a woman for tampons, an which she punches him in the face, resulting in Butthead also having a nosebleed, and it ends with them plugging up their noses with tampons.

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